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Building a simple home in the heart of Houston


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We currently live in a condo that's 450 sqft and need (want) to get ourselves a bigger place. We've looked at Montrose, Midtown, Rice Military, Heights, East End, Museum District... After a few months of searching the options we've seen are either too boring or too expensive. I'm talking anything under 350k is cookie cutter crap, for lack of better word. Rehabbed bungalows in the Montrose or Heights areas really interested me in the beginning, but alas we can't afford anything in that price range. The suburbs...don't even get me started. How people put up with that is beyond me. Priorities change when you have kids I guess.

I've been toying with the idea of purchasing some land in above mentioned areas and doing something custom. Something eclectic and memorable. A modern bungalow maybe? Or a warehouse style place? Something green and ultramodern? I'm in no way interested in throwing up a gaudy yuppie mansion in the middle of a historic area. Something along the lines of 1500 sqft with a nice little yard.

I'm here for your advice. What are some prime examples of such places in Houston? I would really like to drive around and see what others have done before me and learn from them. OR any advice in general? Restrictions, planning, hiring someone to do the design, etc. Please tell me it's possible before I pull the trigger and relegate myself to a Perry townhome.

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Completely open to suggestion. Open concept kitchen is the only real thing on my want list. Besides that it could be anything from bungalow to bauhaus. Or even a completely open "loft" style SFR.

For budget, I'm comfortable spending ~150k on land. From what I can see online it doesn't buy much. On improvements I don't know because I'm a complete newbie. 100k? Lower is always better, but I'm more value oriented. But to answer your question, I'd rather have a modest place in a better location.

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Try Timbergrove Manor. You can get a 1500 sq ft house for $260k or so. Building a 1500 sq ft house inside the loop will cost you at last $150k, probably more, from the numbers I've seen. Replacement cost onour 1400 sq ft house for insurance purposes is $160k, and I think that's low.

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Try Timbergrove Manor. You can get a 1500 sq ft house for $260k or so. Building a 1500 sq ft house inside the loop will cost you at last $150k, probably more, from the numbers I've seen. Replacement cost onour 1400 sq ft house for insurance purposes is $160k, and I think that's low.

I'll give that area a try. I went to an open house a while back and it seemed a little dated. I also gave Oak forest/Garden Oaks a shot. Maybe the problem isn't what's on the market, it's me :blink:

Anyone have experience with souped up Quonset huts and the like in Houston?

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I'm going to try to provide constructive criticism, but first I need to thoughtfully expose your hypocrisy. Try not to take it personally. We all have our hangups.

The title of this thread describes your housing preferences as "simple". Then, in the first two sentences of content, you slam anything built as vernacular architecture as being "boring" and "cookie cutter crap", evidently exempting bungalows from that description even though they are also a form of vernacular architecture. (You could even buy them out of a Sears catalog at one time.) Then you slam suburbs even though all those nifty bungalows that you like in the Heights and Montrose started off as nothing but suburban housing. You've provide some examples (pseudo-historic, industrial aesthetic, green/ultramodern) of custom architecture that you might like, all of which are more expensive and more complex to build than 'canned' architecture using stock plans.

Since you seem willing to build something industrial or ultramodern in areas that you describe as "historic", it doesn't seem like you're interested in preservation for its own sake. It seems like you're just trying to be different, to be complicated, to be cute, to be individualistic, to be respected, and so on. It's an ego thing. (And again, don't take it personally. The people on this forum can tell you, I understand all about architectural egotism. See 'NicheLair I' and 'NicheLair II' threads.)

Now, for the economics. There's a reason that you don't see anything in the market that you like at your price point. In highly desirable neighborhoods where land is expensive, under-developing a site poses a huge opportunity cost and is uneconomical. Whether a house is custom-built or done on spec, the concern over creating as much equity as possible usually guides the decision process. There's a price threshold above which that assumption does not hold true, but that's waaaay beyond your budget. In less desirable neighborhoods where land is affordable, building anything new (and especially a custom home) can be construed as over-developing the site and will be extremely difficult to appraise in such a way that you can finance it by conventional means; be prepared for a very large down payment, possibly up to 50%. And expect that when you try to resell the property, someone with your same mindset may run into the same problems trying to buy it that you did in getting it built.

Your construction budget is also inadequate. You propose a construction budget of $66 per square foot, however for a custom-designed and custom-built home, you should expect that it'll cost very nearly double that. Actually, $100 to $120 per square foot can be done quite easily...it's just that you're a newbie by your own admission and will be susceptible to getting screwed over by your contractor. Your best bet might be a metallic warehouse with relatively low ceilings and few partitions...but again, you're going to run into problems getting it to appraise out where you need it to be if you intend to pursue conventional financing.

I would suggest that you just save more money so as to get you into the price point you'd prefer to be in...that's also the wisest way to ensure that your equity is preserved. If you're desperate to purchase in the near future, then consider remodels in Oak Forest or Westbury and then stick a big steel sculpture out in the lawn to satisfy your ego.

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I'm going to try to provide constructive criticism, but first I need to thoughtfully expose your hypocrisy. Try not to take it personally. We all have our hangups.

The title of this thread describes your housing preferences as "simple". Then, in the first two sentences of content, you slam anything built as vernacular architecture as being "boring" and "cookie cutter crap", evidently exempting bungalows from that description even though they are also a form of vernacular architecture. (You could even buy them out of a Sears catalog at one time.) Then you slam suburbs even though all those nifty bungalows that you like in the Heights and Montrose started off as nothing but suburban housing. You've provide some examples (pseudo-historic, industrial aesthetic, green/ultramodern) of custom architecture that you might like, all of which are more expensive and more complex to build than 'canned' architecture using stock plans.

Since you seem willing to build something industrial or ultramodern in areas that you describe as "historic", it doesn't seem like you're interested in preservation for its own sake. It seems like you're just trying to be different, to be complicated, to be cute, to be individualistic, to be respected, and so on. It's an ego thing. (And again, don't take it personally. The people on this forum can tell you, I understand all about architectural egotism. See 'NicheLair I' and 'NicheLair II' threads.)

Now, for the economics. There's a reason that you don't see anything in the market that you like at your price point. In highly desirable neighborhoods where land is expensive, under-developing a site poses a huge opportunity cost and is uneconomical. Whether a house is custom-built or done on spec, the concern over creating as much equity as possible usually guides the decision process. There's a price threshold above which that assumption does not hold true, but that's waaaay beyond your budget. In less desirable neighborhoods where land is affordable, building anything new (and especially a custom home) can be construed as over-developing the site and will be extremely difficult to appraise in such a way that you can finance it by conventional means; be prepared for a very large down payment, possibly up to 50%. And expect that when you try to resell the property, someone with your same mindset may run into the same problems trying to buy it that you did in getting it built.

Your construction budget is also inadequate. You propose a construction budget of $66 per square foot, however for a custom-designed and custom-built home, you should expect that it'll cost very nearly double that. Actually, $100 to $120 per square foot can be done quite easily...it's just that you're a newbie by your own admission and will be susceptible to getting screwed over by your contractor. Your best bet might be a metallic warehouse with relatively low ceilings and few partitions...but again, you're going to run into problems getting it to appraise out where you need it to be if you intend to pursue conventional financing.

I would suggest that you just save more money so as to get you into the price point you'd prefer to be in...that's also the wisest way to ensure that your equity is preserved. If you're desperate to purchase in the near future, then consider remodels in Oak Forest or Westbury and then stick a big steel sculpture out in the lawn to satisfy your ego.

You're right I'm definitely not in it for the preservation aspect. The only reason I mentioned any of the historic districts is because they tend to be closer to town. Correlation. I should have just said the closer to town districts. Philosophically I'm pretty apathetic about historic preservation. I'm not interested in arguing the pros and cons. I'm a practical guy. But even if I could I wouldn't put a ultramodern place in, say, Heights Historic area.

I'm going to defend my bungalow statement by saying that, yes, bungalows were the 30s equivalent of today's Sugar Land of Katy, but because of the fact that they were each eventually individually renovated by different people over time they have more character.

Ego...yeah probably. A combination of wanting something special and wondering if I can get more money's worth. I just don't feel these houses are worth that much. It surprises me that people toil away for years to pay for the houses we see on the market today. But obviously my sense of value is skewed because the market is where it is. I want to think that I can get more value by paying in terms of doing my own research, planning, maybe even labor.

Financing-wise I'm not too worried. The above estimate is based on what I'm comfortable paying for myself. But if it's inadequate then that's that.

The thing about appraisals...what if I'm not interested in financing or selling in the near future? How does that affect decisions? Real estate isn't an investment to me. From what I've seen in-town places appraisals are usually pretty evenly split between land and improvements, maybe even favoring improvements for smaller land lots. I'm roughly considering improvement value as a cost of living and not an investment.

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Now, for the economics. There's a reason that you don't see anything in the market that you like at your price point. In highly desirable neighborhoods where land is expensive, under-developing a site poses a huge opportunity cost and is uneconomical. Whether a house is custom-built or done on spec, the concern over creating as much equity as possible usually guides the decision process. There's a price threshold above which that assumption does not hold true, but that's waaaay beyond your budget. In less desirable neighborhoods where land is affordable, building anything new (and especially a custom home) can be construed as over-developing the site and will be extremely difficult to appraise in such a way that you can finance it by conventional means; be prepared for a very large down payment, possibly up to 50%. And expect that when you try to resell the property, someone with your same mindset may run into the same problems trying to buy it that you did in getting it built.

Basically, like my SO says, I need to play with something else to satisfy my curiosity. Something less expensive.

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I'll give that area a try. I went to an open house a while back and it seemed a little dated. I also gave Oak forest/Garden Oaks a shot. Maybe the problem isn't what's on the market, it's me :blink:

Anyone have experience with souped up Quonset huts and the like in Houston?

The problem with Quonset huts is that there is much wasted space on either side as the roof curves downward into the walls. The ceiling height gets pretty low. As far as them being conducive to Houston, they are great. They are very wind resistant. A better option would be to simply put a curved roof on standard walls.

As already stated, standard construction will start at $100 per sf and go up. This will get you an attractive, but not spectacular, home. Land is extra. If you are looking for affordable land, you must go east of I-45.

Your belief that building new is less expensive than buying old is exactly backward. Old construction is much cheaper than new. As an example, when I bought my 90 year old house, the land was worth $140,000, but the house that sits on it was only worth $40,000. To build the exact same 1400 sf house today would cost me upwards of $150,000. You do the math.

I understand your wish to build something unique. But, it is expensive, especially inside the loop. And, as you move farther from standard building designs, the cost per sf rises, as builders charge extra to do something different, since it takes longer to do so. Many of us here have lots of experience with different building styles, renovations and new construction. However, since we do not know what appeals to you, and what tolerance for construction you have, it is hard to advise you.

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The problem with Quonset huts is that there is much wasted space on either side as the roof curves downward into the walls. The ceiling height gets pretty low. As far as them being conducive to Houston, they are great. They are very wind resistant. A better option would be to simply put a curved roof on standard walls.

As already stated, standard construction will start at $100 per sf and go up. This will get you an attractive, but not spectacular, home. Land is extra. If you are looking for affordable land, you must go east of I-45.

Your belief that building new is less expensive than buying old is exactly backward. Old construction is much cheaper than new. As an example, when I bought my 90 year old house, the land was worth $140,000, but the house that sits on it was only worth $40,000. To build the exact same 1400 sf house today would cost me upwards of $150,000. You do the math.

I understand your wish to build something unique. But, it is expensive, especially inside the loop. And, as you move farther from standard building designs, the cost per sf rises, as builders charge extra to do something different, since it takes longer to do so. Many of us here have lots of experience with different building styles, renovations and new construction. However, since we do not know what appeals to you, and what tolerance for construction you have, it is hard to advise you.

Hmm yeah I have no idea what I want which is why I'm trying to research and learn. What can I do with pre-designed plans (countryplans.com for example)? Can I subcontract certain work out and learn to do the simple stuff myself, thereby saving on labor?

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The house that comes to mind is the architects house that was featured here and on a couple of other blogs. I cannot remember the name or I would look it up but it sat overlooking the freeway, the main living area was raised up pretty simple other wise. I had wondered about the issues with financing that Niche pointed out on that house back then. Maybe someone else can find that link, it seems like it is close to what you are thinking about.

Good luck in finding the right situation for you and keep us posted. I think it is an interesting question.

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Can I subcontract certain work out and learn to do the simple stuff myself, thereby saving on labor?

If you have no background in construction, then you should resist this urge. You will probably spend more money by making and fixing your own mistakes than you would otherwise save. The best that can possibly happen is that if you're exceedingly diligent and take a lot of time off work (or whatever else you do from day to day), your project will still take nearly twice as long as it would have if you'd just hired a knowledgeable contractor whose goal is a big lump sum upon completion. And all the while, you'll be paying holding costs and the construction site will be subject to an elevated risk of casualty loss or theft. Go ahead and pay a general contractor the premium, but watch everything he does and understand why he's doing it. (Pay close attention to his relationships with his subs and with code enforcement. Booksmarts won't get you very far in this realm.) That'll make the learning curve on future projects far more manageable.

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The thing about appraisals...what if I'm not interested in financing or selling in the near future? How does that affect decisions? Real estate isn't an investment to me.

Sorry, I forgot to answer this part earlier. You should recognize that a change in life circumstances can have dramatic and unexpected consequences. You could get divorced, re-married, have kids, wind up with expensive special-needs kids, have to take in your sibling-in-law's family while they endure a personal crisis, have your own health crisis, have to expend resources to defend yourself in a baseless lawsuit, or very simply lose your job. Good stuff can happen too; what if you get an awesome job offer, but it requires you to move? And what happens if something like that happens during a recession, when prices are low, there's lots of housing supply, and there are few buyers? If times get tough, it is always better to be more liquid than less liquid, and it is always better to have more equity than less equity.

I think that it is responsible that you view housing as an unavoidable cost of living rather than as an investment. But the same could be said of a car (for most people), and you wouldn't blow off a lease vs. own decision, the terms of a car loan, or the data on how various cars hold their value and are mechanically reliable. All of that is relevant information and should not be taken lightly.

On the other hand...if you're the kind of guy that impulsively walks into a Porche dealership and drives away in a new Carrera, oblivious to any future cognitive dissonance, then go ahead and buy whatever zany thing you want. Our advice falls on deaf ears.

The thing about appraisals...what if I'm not interested in financing or selling in the near future? How does that affect decisions? Real estate isn't an investment to me. From what I've seen in-town places appraisals are usually pretty evenly split between land and improvements, maybe even favoring improvements for smaller land lots.

I'm guessing that you are looking at HCAD appraisals for tax purposes. These aren't reliable indicators of...well, anything. If you hired a certified appraiser, and that appraiser formed an opinion of value from a depreciated cost approach on improvements built more than about five or ten years ago, you could probably go after their appraisal license. HCAD's valuation methodology is bogus. Its garbage in, garbage out.

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Sorry, I forgot to answer this part earlier. You should recognize that a change in life circumstances can have dramatic and unexpected consequences.

Good advice. I'll stick to something traditional and pay the pros to do what they do. One day if I need to rent it out it'll be easier that way.

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Good advice. I'll stick to something traditional and pay the pros to do what they do. One day if I need to rent it out it'll be easier that way.

A part of me hates to hear you say that. I wish that I could take back everything I've said, and do it with a straight face...really, I do.

Don't let what I've said prevent you from making a home your own space. Install one of those nifty freestanding fireplaces in the bedroom or a steel sculpture in the lawn. Mark your territory. Make it special and make it yours. Just don't lose sight of the bigger picture.

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We currently live in a condo that's 450 sqft and need (want) to get ourselves a bigger place. We've looked at Montrose, Midtown, Rice Military, Heights, East End, Museum District... After a few months of searching the options we've seen are either too boring or too expensive. I'm talking anything under 350k is cookie cutter crap, for lack of better word. Rehabbed bungalows in the Montrose or Heights areas really interested me in the beginning, but alas we can't afford anything in that price range. The suburbs...don't even get me started. How people put up with that is beyond me. Priorities change when you have kids I guess.

I've been toying with the idea of purchasing some land in above mentioned areas and doing something custom. Something eclectic and memorable. A modern bungalow maybe? Or a warehouse style place? Something green and ultramodern? I'm in no way interested in throwing up a gaudy yuppie mansion in the middle of a historic area. Something along the lines of 1500 sqft with a nice little yard.

I'm here for your advice. What are some prime examples of such places in Houston? I would really like to drive around and see what others have done before me and learn from them. OR any advice in general? Restrictions, planning, hiring someone to do the design, etc. Please tell me it's possible before I pull the trigger and relegate myself to a Perry townhome.

This house on Curtin near Dumble sounds sort of like what you are talking about. Now this house is on a tough block, but only a few blocks away in Eastwood, there are random lots around that seem like they would work for you, and would be considered more desireable.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=curtin+at+dumble,+houston,+tx&ll=29.738371,-95.326824&spn=0.000037,0.026071&hnear=Dumble+St+%26+Curtin+St,+Houston,+Harris,+Texas+77023&gl=us&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=0&layer=c&cbll=29.73833,-95.326718&panoid=dnBIfGL2O1n08M6NFYu6VQ&cbp=12,219.78,,0,3.63

IMO, when you are building in a historical area, you either match the style of the area, or go completely in the other direction and choose very modern. No in-between or it looks like a suburban home landed in the middle of the city.

I haven't been tracking the sale of empty lots in Eastwood in quite a while (there aren't many), but I would think you would be able to get one for probably 75k. I think the resale for a very modern home would be pretty decent because inside the loop there aren't many/any affordable ones in good or even decent areas (I would say affordable is 250k or less for the size you are talking about).

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I think this can come to a happy conclusion if you're willing to bid cash, like the sellers want, on 2309 Wichita, and then exercise your playfulness finishing out the back half of the lot. The front half is fine while the rear is framed but ready for details to create. The backbuilding and carport are finished and enclosed as a big workshop for experimenting on that.

Edit: Witch-A-Top *is* still for sale and unsold last I saw

//don't let anyone tell you it's unfinishable. Winslow Wedin would do so for $65ps.f.

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I'm a little surprised that your disdain for the suburbs has gone unchallenged. First, if you want unrestricted land on which to build, you may have to look at areas which are quite a bit more rural than you have in mind. Pretty much nothing in Harris County. Props for wanting to build a modest-sized house. Leaving aside the whole kids/school question, you are certainly going to be paying a premium to be close in. Think about how important it will be to you to be close to "city" stuff in ten years. Yes, there is a heck of a lot to do in town, but if you have a house, even a brand new one, you will be spending a lot of time working on it, furnishing it, repairing it, etc. and that will cut into your leisure time and budget dramatically. Unless you have a really high income, you will find it harder and harder to justify eating out and attending entertainment events as much as you probably do now. You also may just not want to bother with it regardless of the cost. I've been to hundreds of concerts in my life and I am far, far, far less interested in going to one now than I was thirty years ago. It's a cliche and a source of jokes, but you will get "boring" as you get older. It's inevitable. Is the "commute" an issue? Park-n-Ride, audiobooks, podcasts, music, high-mpg vehicles, all can play a part in making that less of a problem.

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I'm a little surprised that your disdain for the suburbs has gone unchallenged. First, if you want unrestricted land on which to build, you may have to look at areas which are quite a bit more rural than you have in mind. Pretty much nothing in Harris County. Props for wanting to build a modest-sized house. Leaving aside the whole kids/school question, you are certainly going to be paying a premium to be close in.

The physical availability of unrestricted land is not an issue. Harris County has plenty of rural land, and some of that which is to the northeast and south is actually not that far out of town. But even still, there are close-in parcels of land (and tear-downs) that can be had quite inexpensively. If wei has no children and has no plans to adopt in the near future, which I think was implied, then he should not expect to deal with the school issue for at least another five years. And five years is about the break-even point for most own/lease analyses.

Unless wei or his significant other work in the suburbs or can achieve arbitrage as part of a home purchase, I don't see why the suburbs should be any consideration at all.

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The 'burbs has its merits. I was being cheeky in my original post but I really do have an appreciation for suburban living. And truth be told commute isn't even a big factor for me. But suburban culture is just so different. They're all interchangeable. There's nothing about Sugar Land that suggests it's even in Houston. It could be a suburb of any other city in the US. For now I want something that's properly a part of Houston.

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...you are certainly going to be paying a premium to be close in....It's a cliche and a source of jokes, but you will get "boring" as you get older. It's inevitable. Is the "commute" an issue? Park-n-Ride, audiobooks, podcasts, music, high-mpg vehicles, all can play a part in making that less of a problem.

Your post reminded me why my wife and I continue to live in Midtown (kid included) instead of the suburbs. Yeah, the burbs have cheaper housing... but a five minute commute so I can spend more time with my family is definitely worth a "premium". That said, I would argue that you end up paying more to live in the burbs. The house we currently are in is the same price I would have paid for a home in the burbs (it's just smaller). Plus, I spend way less in gas (only $40 a month), less on car maintenance, less time in the car, less time waiting in lines at restaurants, etc. etc. and there is a ton of free/cheap stuff to do in the city that the burbs never offered (events at Discovery Green, Miller Outdoor Theatre, events along the bayou, etc.). Plus, I can take the kid to the zoo, Children's Museum, etc. anytime they want to go.

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Your post reminded me why my wife and I continue to live in Midtown (kid included) instead of the suburbs. Yeah, the burbs have cheaper housing... but a five minute commute so I can spend more time with my family is definitely worth a "premium". That said, I would argue that you end up paying more to live in the burbs. The house we currently are in is the same price I would have paid for a home in the burbs (it's just smaller).

You got a good deal. When I was looking, there was nothing in Montrose or Midtown that was anywhere close to the price of what I wound up paying for a brand new smallish house in Pearland.

Plus, I spend way less in gas (only $40 a month), less on car maintenance, less time in the car, less time waiting in lines at restaurants, etc. etc. and there is a ton of free/cheap stuff to do in the city that the burbs never offered (events at Discovery Green, Miller Outdoor Theatre, events along the bayou, etc.). Plus, I can take the kid to the zoo, Children's Museum, etc. anytime they want to go.

I gave up a nice duplex with a fair rent price that was five minutes from my job to get away from frequent burglaries, street people, gangs in the park across the street, peeping toms, and a steady parade of transient neighbors. And this was several years before our child was born. It is also in what is pretty much considered a "good" or "safe" neighborhood. Look, I don't really want to make blanket statements about all suburbs or all urban neighborhoods. All I know is my personal experience. The biggest point I want to make, leaving kids out of the equation althogether, is simply this. For me and my wife, the attraction of urban nightlife, restaurants, and entertainment waned quite dramatically with age. Much, much faster than we expected. And this is also true of the nearby restaurants and entertainment, so it's not really a function of a "commute." And the truth is that your kid will be too old to care much about the zoo or the Children's Museum before you know it. Enjoy that time while you have it.

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  • 1 month later...

Wei, I'm not sure if i ever saw your budget posted here, but have you thought of a prefab house? Pick up any old copy (or the new one) of Dwell magazine and there are plenty of articles and ads for prefab houses. Don't confuse prefab with cheap here (might be $200sq/ft or so), but you get a modern house and, I assume, don't have to contend with contractors ripping you off since you are essentially buying the whole package that just needs to be assembled onsite. Now, i could be naive about this latter point, but it might be worth looking in to if you can afford it.

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  • 5 years later...

I am currently in the same situation except that i have a child school age. And so far the only affordable place in that range below 350K with 1500 sqft i found as a condo in river oaks. In not high monthly maintenance fees of $650 I would have bought it. 

Does anyone know how do those maintenance fees vary and why?

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